The storm that spawned the deadly F-5 tornadoes in our state and elsewhere fortunately did not "touch down" on my land, although a tornado was tracked not that far south of here that went on towards Brandon. But I did get way plenty of damaging winds all over my land. I cleaned up the limbs and the 20 foot section of tree truck today that were snapped off the sycamore beside my house. Here is a photo of the tree trunk sections and some of the limbs.

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Later in the afternoon, I made my first trip down the east trail into the woods since the storm. The trail is littered with small limbs and a couple larger limbs. The foot bridge and trail where I cross the ravine behind my food plot is now partially blocked by a large tree that was blown over. It was a useless willow tree so I am glad to see it go, however I do not need the extra work of cleaning the trails!

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The temporary plastic board siding stapled to my platform shooting house was mostly ripped off by the storm. No big loss, as I was going to replace it this summer with permanent siding. Just more work to do however!

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I still have to walk the other 15 acres to see if I lost any more trees, which probably I did. Seems like every storm keeps taking out a few trees.

Ok, friends, this is a good time to bring your chain saws, pruners, etc. over and help clear some trails.

2013-2014 Team Double Drop Tine

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth" Genesis 9:2

Ha...nope, not yet. But this afternoon I asked my bowhunting neighbor to see if his brother wanted the tree for firewood. Last fall, he ran out of firewood (because he was too lazy to cut enough) and came and got a big load of wood from the food plot clearance project. Most of that would was trash wood not really suitable for burning, but it is obvious he is not picky if it is free and he has help to load and move it. So I have offered him this equally poor firewood from the downed willow tree, along with the rest of the junk wood previously cut. I am betting he still has not learned anything about what makes good firewood.

I offered to help him and his brother cut the tree up and get it loaded, so maybe that will work out. I should know tomorrow. I already burned the entire sycamore tree pile last evening and it is gone now. So if worst comes to worse, I will simply have a lot of pieces of log to use for a bonfire or two. Or I may just roll them off into the 30 foot deep ravine and leave them for the next 30 or 40 years until they (or I) disappear.

2013-2014 Team Double Drop Tine

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth" Genesis 9:2